CEO’s Chipotle Mexican Grill Stake Soars by $7 Million

By Trey Thoelcke Published Feb 21, 9:30AM EST

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CEO’s Chipotle Mexican Grill Stake Soars by $7 Million — © Chipotle (CC BY 2.0) by Mike Mozart

There is much investors can learn by examining how company insiders handle positions in their own companies. While these insiders may sell shares for a variety of reasons (like buying a house, paying for college, preparing for retirement), they generally buy for only one reason: they expect to make more money.

The chief executive officer often is among the largest and best-informed shareholders in any corporation. Let’s see whether Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) CEO Brian Niccol has been increasing or decreasing his shares over the past year and whether he might know something we don’t.

What You Need to Know About Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill owns and operates American fast-casual restaurants featuring food made to order in front of the customer. Offerings include burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads made with fresh ingredients. (Check out the number of Chipotle locations by state.)

The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California. That is also the home of investment manager PIMCO and insurer Pacific Life. Chipotle’s competitors include Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX | SBUX Price Prediction), and Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ: WING). Niccol has been Chipotle’s chief executive since 2018 and board chair since 2020.

The company reported annual revenue of more than $9.5 billion, and its market capitalization is over $71.2 billion. The share price is more than 60% higher than it was a year ago, outperforming the broader markets. The stock hit an all-time high of $2,725.83 a share earlier this month, and it is up almost 14% year to date.

How Chipotle’s CEO Is Trading

Buying or selling?

One year ago, Niccol owned almost 30,100 shares, worth over $45.2 million. On last look, he owned more than 23,300 shares. Despite reducing the stake by 6,700 or so shares, its value has risen by about 15.3% to around $52.1 million as the share price soared.

Shares a Year Ago	Shares Today	% Change
30,093	23,347	−22.42%

As mentioned, CEOs and other insiders may sell shares for many reasons. In this case, CEO Brian Niccol’s sales over the past year have been part of a plan intended to comply with Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. That is, he has been exercising stock options and then selling some (but not all) of those shares. He is not the only officer at the company with this pattern of options exercised followed by sales.

Other insiders to watch are Director Albert Baldocchi and Chief Financial Officer John Hartung. both of whom have stakes larger than Niccol’s. They were worth about $154.2 million and almost $150.1 million, respectively, before Baldocchi sold a thousand shares last week. Back in December, one director bucked the past year’s selling trend and picked up less than 900 of the shares.

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.